Full Comment’s Araminta Wordsworth brings you a daily round-up of quality punditry from across the globe.

Today: One of the ironic insights of the WikiLeaks documents is how unsurprising many of them are.

U.S. diplomats were breaking little new ground in confidential reports to their masters back in Washington, it appears. Everyone — with the possible exception of themselves — knew Silvio Berlusconi is an aging lothario who chases under-age women, Nicolas Sarkozy is a thin-skinned pocket Napoleon and Vladimir Putin is

mucho

macho. They are all leaders of first world nations and U.S. allies, not enemies.

In a different category altogether is Hamid Karzai, the Afghan President and a man supposedly on Americans’ side over the conflict in Afghanistan.

But the leaked documents also show him actively working to undermine the U.S. and NATO mission in Afghanistan. This includes releasing at least 150 dangerous detainees without trial and pardoning suspect drug dealers because they were linked to his powerful cronies.

“The newly revealed cable, written by U.S. Ambassador Karl Eikenberry and addressed to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and other senior officials in Washington, reported that on July 29, 2009, Deputy Ambassador Frances Ricciardone and State Department Legal Adviser Harold Koh had formally demarched [protested to] Afghanistan’s Attorney General Mohammed Ishaq Aloko. The protest was over two issues: the Karzai government’s release of detainees, including a large number transferred from Guantanamo, and its interventions on behalf of convicted ‘narco-traffickers.’ In April of last year, the cable recounts, Karzai pardoned five border policemen known as the ‘Zahir Five’ … on the grounds that they were ‘distantly related to two individuals who had been martyredduring the civil war’ … In perhaps the most surprising passage in the cable, it recounts how Karzai’s own chief of staff, Mohammed Omar Daudzai, had told deputy ambassador Riccardone that ‘he was ashamed of the president for his interference.’ ”

, the UN’s former no. 2 in Afghanistan, it’s been an “I told you so” moment: he’s been saying for years Karzai stole the 2009 presidential election and this year’s general elections. Speaking on CNN’s Spitzer/Parker Show, he said,

“[Karzai] runs a corrupt regime. His vice -president according to these documents had $53-million in cash going to Dubai. There is no legitimate explanation for a vice-president of a country running off with $53-million. Another of these documents reveals that his half-brother [Ahmed Wali Karzai] is involved with the drug trade.”

says the writing may be on the wall for Karzai. Once the U.S. withdraws, he’ll be quickly swept aside.

“Hopes of a peaceful, negotiated settlement and the rebuilding of Afghan institutions like the judiciary and security forces shattered by three decades of war grow fainter by the day. ‘With his legitimacy in question and his hold on power more tenuous by the day, Karzai now spends much of his time juggling the competing interests of his family, regional commanders, wealthy powerbrokers and international stakeholders,’ the International Crisis Group (ICG) said in its Afghanistan: Exit vs Engagement report. ‘This precarious balancing act in which corruption and patronage reign supreme has neutralized the president’s potency and hindered government reform.’ Karzai, once regarded as essential, is now seen as a liability.”

“Karzai is releasing Taliban fighters captured by U.S. and NATO forces, as quickly as they are jailed. And returning them back into the battlefield to kill American soldiers. Either Taliban militants secure their release with a payoff, or make use of family and tribal connections. Meanwhile, our forces are in a bloody battle to fight against the Taliban insurgency. So, you may be wondering – What are we fighting for? … The United States has now been fighting in Afghanistan longer than the former Soviet Union. And 1,411 American lives have been lost, with 2009 and 2010 being the deadliest years yet. The ‘transition’ plan to hand over security to the Afghan National Army can’t come fast enough.”

“All of this underscores a central point. The Defence Department never wanted to be the ‘world’s jailer.’ Nor did it want to move hundreds of detainees to the U.S. to stand trial – a move that would have caused a host of problems. But America’s allies, including Afghanistan, can’t be counted on to hold detainees let alone try them, even when the U.S. thinks a trial is appropriate.”

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